From the ground up: How a Pennsylvania cattle farm is revitalizing the land

For Amanda Butterfield, cattle farming is a love story.

Although she was not raised on a farm, Butterfield fell in love with agriculture while earning a bachelor’s degree in animal bioscience and microbiology at Pennsylvania State University. There, she worked in the school’s beef nutrition department, and after graduation, she pursued a life working with cattle. Today, Amanda, her husband Mike and their daughter Evelyn own and operate Maple Valley Cattle Company, an example of the strong overlap between land management and cattle farming across the U.S.

In 2010, the family moved to Somerset County, where they raised dairy cattle for seven years and maintained a small beef herd. Butterfield explained that Somerset County is close to Pennsylvania’s highest elevation point. Because of this, it is difficult to grow traditional row crops, but it’s excellent for cold season grasses and the cows who will merrily eat them. In fact, approximately 29% of land in the U.S. is unsuitable for growing crops, but it is perfect for cattle.^1-3

In 2017, they purchased 140 acres and sought advice from conservation experts like the Natural Resources Conservation Service to shift to exclusively beef farming. The land that the Butterfields manage was once stripped mined, and the family has been hard at work restoring it to an ecosystem overflowing with life. They have seen that an essential part of the puzzle is using cattle grazing to restore native plants, bring back wildlife habitat and enhance nutrients in the soil. “I’m very passionate about the land,” she said, “I love being outside. I love waking up in the morning and seeing wildlife.”

Improved land health has compounding impacts on the larger ecosystem. In the years that the Butterfields have worked to restore this property, they have seen a resurgence in species like honeybees, monarch butterflies and even nesting birds that cohabitate in grazing areas.

She said the root of their work imitates historic natural grazing patterns of wildlife such as bison. “These animals came in, grazed and left. The land recovered and then the animals came and grazed and left again.”

To that end, Butterfield said they move the cows among smaller plots two or three times a day. They allow the grass to recover for at least 30 days — preferably 60 to 90 — before the cows return to that spot. “We can graze the same grounds three times a year,” she said. A bonus from this management style: “manure makes fantastic fertilizer, so we’re building up the organic matter in the soil, too.”

It’s also about giving back to the land she loves. “We keep trying to make enhancements and just trying to leave this piece of earth a little bit better than when we got it.”

These days, Butterfield and her husband, together with their now-teenage daughter, Evelyn share their passion for conservation with people who aren’t familiar with agricultural practices.

In high schools, Evelyn said, it’s not unusual when “nobody really knows anything about cattle farming besides preconceived notions or a video they saw.” She tries to dispel those preconceived notions and encourage support for the next generation of farmers like her.

For Butterfield, education looks like transparency. “All the food that you see that is derived from the United States — we put a lot of care into it,” she said. “I tell everybody that you’re welcome to come on our farm. I think it’s very important for people to know where their food comes from.”

Sources:

1. Bureau of Land Management. 2015. Fiscal Year 2015 Rangeland Inventory, Monitoring, and Evaluation Report. https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/uploads/2015%20RIME%20Final.pdf
2. Bureau of Land Management. 2025. The Bureau of Land Management’s Grazing Program Infographic. https://www.blm.gov/sites/default/files/docs/2025-02/BLM-Grazing-Program-Infographic.pdf
3. Winters-Michaud, C., Haro, A., Callahan, S. & Bigelow, D. P. 2024. Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2017. ers.usda.gov